Home Office

Asylum: EU Law

Yvette Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many take charge requests under the Dublin III Regulation the UK has accepted from Greece for unaccompanied children for family reunification the last 12 months.

James Brokenshire: Holding answer received on 11 March 2016



Data on cases progressed under the Dublin III Regulation is recorded on the main immigration database. However, this data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is therefore not currently available.

Asylum: EU Law

Yvette Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many take charge requests under the Dublin III Regulation the UK has received from other EU member states for family reunification in the (a) unaccompanied minors, (b) family members, (c) dependent persons and (d) discretionary categories in the last 12 months; and how many such requests have been (i) approved, (ii) refused and (iii) remain under consideration.

James Brokenshire: Holding answer received on 11 March 2016



Data on cases progressed under the Dublin Convention is recorded on the main immigration database. However, this data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is therefore not currently available.

Ministry of Justice

Prisons: Contracts

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many failures there have been in contracts for the running of prisons at each institution in each of the last five years; what those failures were; and what financial penalties were attached to each such failure.

Andrew Selous: All private prison contracts are robustly managed by a full-time, on-site controller. Where a provider fails to meet the expected level of performance, financial remedies can be applied. This ensures that providers are incentivised to properly support the rehabilitation of offenders through a safe, decent and secure regime. Privately managed prisons achieve the majority of their contractual targets with proportionately low levels of performance points and financial penalties applied as a result. The following table shows a summary outlining the number of instances where financial remedies have been applied, their reasons and values since 2010 for current companies contracted to operate prisons. Prisons/YOIs2010/11 NumberValue Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with procedures12£196,155 Total Financial Remedies due to Incidents7£94,584 Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with Regimes2£50,699 2011/12Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with procedures8£151,283.29 Total Financial Remedies due to Incidents5£41,576.41 Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with Regimes2£18,606.30 2012/13Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with procedures22£381,898.58 Total Financial Remedies due to Incidents9£69,642.26 Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with Regimes12£206,061.77 2013/14Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with procedures32£900,089 Total Financial Remedies due to Incidents16£95,825 Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with Regimes22£243,502 2014/15Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with procedures24£582,484 Total Financial Remedies due to Incidents16£150,589 Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with Regimes11£131,534 2015/16Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with procedures10£323,447 Total Financial Remedies due to Incidents6£39,449 Total Financial Remedies due to Failure to comply with Regimes8£94,865 Table note: Financial remedies only apply if baseline targets are exceeded.

Prisons: Discipline

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) disturbances and (b) riots have been recorded (i) on the prison estate and (ii) in private prisons since May 2010.

Andrew Selous: I refer the Hon Member to the answer for PQ 28151, answered on 18 March 2016. This can be found on the following link: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-23/28151/

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

South Korea: Animal Welfare

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the South Korean government on animal welfare as part of the preparations for the Winter Olympics in 2018.

Mr Hugo Swire: I wrote to Ambassadors in the Asia Pacific region in January 2016 to review our approach and assess what progress could be made in the future. Our Ambassador has raised the issue of cruelty related to the dog meat trade with the South Korean authorities, explaining that UK Parliamentarians and the public would like to see regulation that would bring this to an end. As we approach the Winter Olympics in 2018 we will continue to monitor and raise as appropriate.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Video Games

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to assist and promote the UK video games industry in areas outside London.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The video games tax relief, launched in April 2014, is available to support video games productions based anywhere in the UK. Additionally, in October 2015 we launched our new £4m UK Games Fund to accelerate video games sector growth in all UK regions offering grants, mentoring and skills support for micro-businesses and SMEs. Of the first 24 successful grant applicants announced in February 2016, 18 were based outside London. Grant winning companies located in the North East of England for example included Coatsink Software in Sunderland, Nosebleed Interactive in Newcastle and Cardboard Sword and Double Eleven, both in Middlesbrough. The second call for applications is currently underway and closes on 18th April. The UK Games Fund’s talent programme, Tranzfuser, is currently in development and will be working with a UK-wide network of regional hubs including Vector 76 in the North East of England, The Digital Creativity Hub in the North West and Sheffield Hallam University in South Yorkshire.

BBC: Royal Charters

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when the Government plans to publish the outcome of its consultation on the review of the BBC's Royal Charter which closed on 8 October 2015.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The government published a Summary of Responses to the BBC Charter Review consultation on 1 March 2016.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Disabled Students' Allowances

Chris Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the changes to the Disabled Students' Allowance on the number of university applications in the forthcoming academic year.

Joseph Johnson: The reform of Disabled Students’ Allowances is intended to ensure higher education institutions are consistently meeting their duties to disabled students under the Equality Act, and is not expected to impact on application rates. The Government carried out an Equality Analysis as part of the recent consultation on reforms to Disabled Students’ Allowances. This is available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/481527/bis-15-658-disabled-students-allowances-equality-analysis.pdf